The Okehampton Roman military complex, situated on the northern fringe of Dartmoor in Devon, comprises a fort, an associated fortlet and ancillary enclosures identified through aerial survey and geophysics. Likely occupied during the Flavian period (c. AD 55–80) as part of the Roman conquest and consolidation of the South-West peninsula, the fortlet would have functioned as a small garrison post controlling movement along the east–west route between Exeter (Isca Dumnoniorum) and Cornwall.
Source: Pleiades — A Community-Built Gazetteer and Graph of Ancient Places. View the Pleiades record →
The site forms a key link in the chain of military installations strung across Devon — including Nanstallon, North Tawton and Calstock — that secured the Dumnonian territory and likely supported exploitation of mineral resources on Dartmoor. Its position underlines the strategic importance of the Okehampton gap as a natural corridor around the northern edge of the moor.
Discovery has relied largely on cropmark evidence and geophysical survey, revealing the characteristic playing-card outline of the fort alongside a smaller fortlet and adjacent enclosures, with little large-scale excavation yet published. As with comparable South-Western fortlets such as Martinhoe and Old Burrow, definitive dating evidence remains limited, though the morphology is consistent with first-century Roman military planning.
The Okehampton Roman military complex, situated on the northern fringe of Dartmoor in Devon, comprises a fort, an associated fortlet and ancillary enclosures identified through aerial survey and geophysics. It is recorded in the Pleiades gazetteer of ancient places as a fortlet site from the Roman period in Britain.
Okehampton Roman fort, fortlet and associated enclosures is classified as a Roman fortlet — a military site in the Pleiades ancient world gazetteer. Roman Britain's archaeology encompasses thousands of sites ranging from legionary fortresses and marching camps to villas, temples and towns.
Several Roman sites lie within a short distance, including ‘Nemetotacio’ (7.5 km), Roman forts, marching camps and associated monuments (7.8 km), Broadbury Castle Roman camp (11.2 km). Aubrey Research maps over 2,200 Roman sites across Britain, drawn from the Pleiades ancient world gazetteer.
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